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The train to Bilbao should have taken less than an hour. But passing green little valleys scarred by the proliferation of high rise blocks and desolate industrial projects, it ended up being closer to four.I arrived hot, sweating and without the slightest idea of where I was staying

Chicas!! Chicas!!

James Taylor
2006-08-23 12:26:28

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along the river bank with my massive bag in tow. For a few minutes I didn't care that I'd walked about 5km with the equivelent weight of a house strapped to my back and I didn't care that my pelvis would soon be retiring with a career threatening injury. It truly is astonishing. You see, the Guggenhiem is less of an art mueum and more of an enormous, many-tentacled, titanium and glass monster that just happens to hold a priceless art collection. While it wouldn't stand out as the end boss in a Japanese role playing game (I'm sure I have seen it in Final Fantasy 7), silhouted against the crumbling and half-finished Bilbao riverbank it certainly looks a bit special. My first thought was "HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK". It looks like it shouldn't. The whole structure seems as if one light gust of wind would send the whole thing crashing in on itself, titanium, glass, priceless art, tourists and all.

Someone clever and important has called the Guggenhiem "the most important building of our generation" and I'm not going to argue. Anyone who can make blocks of Titanium, Glass and Limestone, look like a quivering mass of Jelly deserves Kudos in my book.

The art collection it houses isn't actually all that, to be honest. Certainly not anything special compared to some of the museums I have been to in Paris and Madrid. Part of the problem is that because the whole building is such an utterly ridiculous shape there isn't really anywhere to hang art. But this hardly matters, because inside it's even more spectacular. Included in the rather steep entry charge is an audioguide (something I tend to avoid), and we are all treated to a pompous and lofty monologue by a respectable British chap on how the Guggenhiem is like a "modern day Cathedral", and how the grand central atrium "allows our souls to breath", or some similar bollocks. But in a way, it's all true. Standing in the central area, one really does feel a sense ...